I RECENTLY LEFT GUN ABUSE CENTRAL on a secret mission: to find out
what was new and exciting at SigSauer. I fully expected to see new
handguns and perhaps handle a few Stoner-based rifles. But what I found
was even more interesting: suppressors.

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Despite the Hollywood hysteria, suppressors are not verboten, not
invariably used by contract assassins and drug dealers, and not a signal
to others at the gun club that you have succumbed to the alien radio
signals being transmitted directly into your brain. They are, in fact,
legal to own and use in 39 states, and nearly 30 allow you to hunt or
control vermin while using a suppressor.

EAR-FRIENDLY FUN

The market has been growing, and why not? In a world where a
transferable machine gun costs more than a brand-new car, a suppressor
is a bargain when it comes to fun. We are all subject to the stress of
noise. If we can save our hearing and decrease the auditory impact of
our ranges on the neighbors, we would be silly not to. For once, Europe
is a good example here, where it is considered bad manners in many
places not to have a suppressor on your rifle.

Look, I shoot for a living. I am often "plugged and
muffed" on the line, wearing all the protection I can get. When
I'm on a covered firing line, shared with multiple rifleshooters, I
wish we all had silencers on our rifles to save our collective hearing.
You can buy better glasses, arch supports and knee braces, but once any
part of your hearing is gone, it is gone.

Oh, and while we're at it, let's get some terminology out
of the way. The current vogue is to call the can on the end of your
muzzle a "suppressor" and not a "silencer." However,
SigSauer takes the opposite tack. In the words of Ron Cohen, company
CEO, "That's what Hiram Percy Maxim called it, and that's
what all the federal statutes and paperwork call it. So that's what
we call it--a silencer."

So that's how I found myself on the range, left to my own
devices with the current range of SigSauer-made silencers, the firearms
on which they fit and a pile of ammo. I felt like a kid in a candy
store.

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However, I did notice one detail. Whoever had pulled firearms out
of the vault for me to test had grabbed semiautos only, save one--no
doubt in the interests of preserving the company ammo supply. Because
they were not worried about silencer longevity. More on that in a bit.

DIFFERENT-CALIBER CANS

The silencers on hand were a handgun can, a rifle/handgun rimfire
can and two rifle silencers--one for 5.56 and the other for .30 caliber.
Let's start with the rimfire silencer, which can be used on
handguns or rifles.

With an aluminum tube, high nickel-content baffles and hardened
stainless steel endcaps, the .22LR silencer is light, if a bit bulky. If
you are already a silencer user and accustomed to ultra-compact rimfire
silencers, the size of the Sig rimfire silencer might seem a bit much.
It is, however, lightweight, and the size is for a reason. More volume
means greater sound decrease, and rimfire silencers get gunked up
quickly and need regular cleaning. A bigger can is easier to disassemble and scrub clean. The handgun I was provided with was a very cool P220,
fitted with a .22 Long Rifle conversion upper. Despite the size, the
P220 never failed to function properly. The rimfire silencer will come
with a disassembly tool, but I found that when I assembled it
hand-tight, it stayed tight but could still be hand-disassembled. Well,
I could take it apart by hand, but after I had done so I couldn't
handle my camera due to the gunk all over my hands. And just to make
sure you can't say no, the .22 silencer can be had with one (or
all) of three different thread pitch backplates.

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The 9mm silencer is also an aluminum tube, with high-nickel-alloy
stainless baffles and hardened stainless end caps, but it is not meant
to be disassembled. It is not recommend, nor does the company feel it
needs it. The 9mm silencer was actually a bit smaller than the .22, but
with the right ammo it is still ear-safe. Part of the 9mm ear-safe
function is that it is designed to be run wet. A wet silencer is one
that you add some liquid or gel to to increase its efficiency at
dampening sound. You can run it dry, but it just won't be quite as
quiet. And if you start wet and keep shooting past having used up all
the liquid or gel, it'll still work; it will just have a few more
decibels than if you stopped and gooped it again. Like its little/big
brother, the 9mm suppressor can be had in two different mount pitches.
The 9mm silencer came on a P226 SAO, the new single-action SigSauer
based on the proven P226.

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In terms of noise reduction, incidentally, the 9mm silencer is
rated at 128 to 132 decibels with 147-grain subsonic ammo. The .22
version is rated at 114 to 116 decibels with standard-velocity Long
Rifle ammo.

The two rifle silencers were something else entirely. Made of
steel, with high-nickel-alloy stainless on the inside, they are welded
and sealed, never to be disassembled. They are also stepped, and the
reason for that is simple. SigSauer had an end-user who wanted to fit
the back end of the silencers under a free-float hand-guard, but wanted
maximum efficiency. The step fits under common free-float handguards.

Both the 5.56 and the .30 are rated for full-auto fire and use on
SBRs, and they will probably stand up to the heat of shooting better
than your barrel or wallet. The .30-caliber silencer is designed for use
on carbine-length and shorter .308/7.62 rifles in mind. They will have
to be tested to see if they handle other calibers such as .30-06, .270
and so on with equal aplomb.

I used the 5.56 model on a SigSauer 516 and the .30 silencer on a
716, both piston-driven models. The 516 was an SBR, with the 716
sporting a carbine-length barrel. These silencers are offered only in
thread-on design. And they are both built hell-for-tough.

Why? Again, in discussing silencers with company CEO Ron Cohen, it
became clear that these aspects were not settled on capriciously.
SigSauer is determined to be at the forefront of the burgeoning silencer
market. Rather than simply copy existing designs, SigSauer put the
R&D branch to work and came up with a sealed, efficient, tough
design that used durable materials without the need for exotic alloys.
The company set out to design a rifle-caliber silencer that would
outlast the service life of the barrel. Time will tell, but since
SigSauer's idea of preproduction testing when it rolls out a
firearm is to expend 1 million rounds, I'm pretty confident that
will be achieved.

Also, the lack of a quick-mount system is part of the longevity of
the silencer. If the silencer is going to last as long as the barrel, or
longer, why would you take it off? Simple. You'd take it off if it
didn't outlast the barrel. Now, I differ here. While I have an
entire rack full of rifles that can accept a silencer, I can't see
fitting a silencer to each and every one of them. No problem, as the
SigSauer silencers do not need to be torqued on to extreme levels. The
figure that was mentioned when I asked was 25 foot-pounds. Heck, on a
good day I can do that with my bare hands.

And last, I noticed that the 9mm silencer lacked a linear-inertial
mount called a Nielson device. On handguns, where the barrel has to move
to unlock, the extra weight and length of a silencer can cause the
pistol to malfunction. The Neilsen device lets pistols cycle with heavy
silencers attached. The 9mm silencer is so light (3.7 ounces) that it
doesn't need one. A new and tight pistol with a new, full-power
recoil spring might balk occasionally in the beginning. But just shoot
it in (no need to do this with the silencer on) for a couple hundred
rounds and by then it will function fine.

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The silencers--and firearms--will be made at the brand-new SigSauer
facility. The company has spent $40 million building and equipping a
206,000-square-foot building, making it the only firearms maker to be
directly designing and producing silencers, and doing so in mass
production as well.

As I mentioned earlier, 39 states allow silencer ownership. And the
ones that don't are, for the most part, all the usual suspects when
it comes to legislative buffoonery vis-a-vis firearms. If you take a
silencer to your gun club, inevitably someone will make a few jokes at
your expense about shipping out to Iraq or trying out for a job as a
movie hitman. Just smile and keep practicing, knowing you're saving
your hearing as well as dampening the noise the neighbors are subjected
to.

THE COST FACTOR

One of the main drawbacks to silencers has been the fact that
they're expensive. Well, not anymore they aren't. SigSauer has
thrown down the gauntlet by offering its silencers in the $495 to $795
range (compared with other brands that can start at more than a grand
per). Add in the obligatory $200 transfer tax and you're the
coolest guy at your gun club for less than the cost of a smartphone and
a year's service.

Now, one last question (besides the various paperwork questions),
and that pertains to shift in point of impact. You can put a silencer on
your rifle and not have a POI change. And then again you may. My plan is
to find out just that. I'm on the list, and as soon as SigSauer
gets its silencers in production, I'll have some to test, just as a
curious hunter would. Accuracy with the silencer on. Accuracy with the
silencer off. I'll find out what happens with a a selection of
hunting-caliber bolt guns and report back.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Meet the MPX

OK, when it comes to cool, compact is the new bling. And it's
difficult to get more compact than a pistol-caliber carbine of the
short-barreled rifle variety. Alas, most designs are ATF-approved
modifications of submachine-gun designs. I love a good SMG, but if
I'm looking for something modern, my choices were basically slim to
none until SigSauer stepped into the picture.

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Cue the MPX. Unlike SMGs, which are, with few exceptions, blowback
(most being open-bolt as well), the MPX is a closed-bolt, locked-breech
design. Why does this matter? Because a blowback system has only the
mass of the bolt and the strength of the spring to contain its
operation.

To work a 9mm is not too much of a problem, but anything bigger and
you end up with so much weight crashing back and forth, propelled by a
Buick-like spring, that it soon ceases to be fun. With a locked-breech
system, you only have to drive a bolt that is heavy enough to reliably
strip off the next round to feed. The upshot? Softer recoil, more

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The locked breech makes the MPX very controllable. So much so that
when I first fired it, I was surprised. First of all, the cyclic rate
was up around 900 rpm. A blowback system running at that speed is no
fun, even in 9mm. But the MPX was fun and controllable, and it was very
cool to shoot with the 9mm silencer. It's worth noting that the
company has built the MPX in .357 SIG and .40 S&W (no .45 ACPs yet,
but I made a point of mentioning it several times). Additionally,
SigSauer plans to offer conversion kits for the MPX, Got a 9mm? Want a
.40? Buy the kit, change the parts, and you're golden.

And to feed the MPX, SigSauer teamed up with Lancer to produce a
polymer magazine (10, 20 or 30 rounds) that has steel-reinforced feed
lips and locking slot. The magazine itself is so tough that--loaded--it
could be used as an impact device.

Now, unlike silencers, SMGs are off the menu, at least to those of
us who are not in law enforcement. For the rest of us, SigSauer offers a
special model of the MPX with a permanently attached barrel
extension/muzzlebrake that brings it up to the required 16-plus inches.
With your choice of folding, telescoping or M4-compatible stocks, it can
be what you want it to be. And the civilian MPX also readily accepts the
company's 9mm silencer. As an extra ergonomic bonus, since the AR
was deliberately chosen as the MPX's design start, all the controls
are right where you expect them to be--and they're ambidextrous as
well. The price on the civilian carbine is $2,199 (with carbon fiber
handguard and red dot sight). The SBR lists for $2,065. The caliber
conversion kit (bolt, barrel, magazine) goes for $449.

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